Despite the world oohing and ahhing over the Bugatti Veyron, the car was never that compelling to me. Its all-wheel drive system probably had something to do with it and that there were plenty of other fast and expensive things that were much more exciting. But a Veyron with a rear-wheel drive conversion? Now you have my full attention.
The guys at Royalty Exotics, a Las Vegas-based exotic car rental company, decided to try such a conversion on their personal Veyron. You’ll remember them as the ones who demonstrated a Veyron oil change earlier this month.
As it turns out, it seems like converting a Veyron from all-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive is eerily simple. The guys took off the wheels, brakes and suspension, opened up the panels on the car’s belly and pulled out the front differential and axles. Then they put everything back together.
Of course, these guys had an easy time because they’ve done something similar before. Houston Crosta, the Veyron’s owner, said that he converted his Lamborghini to rear-wheel drive once and the process was extremely similar. It makes sense that they are, since both Bugatti and Lamborghini are owned by Volkswagen. Their components can’t be that different underneath.
The results were what you’d expect of a car that just had a bunch of stuff removed from its front. The turning radius improved markedly, the steering itself felt lighter. And it could lay down some of the best donuts I’ve ever seen in my life. Huge, 365-section rear tire donuts.
Crosta and his friends are thrilled by this. It’s the same feeling of elation you’d have if you thought up a crazy experiment that worked out in the end.
Veyrons have always been fast. But their Veyron is now officially fun.